This Saturday, February 20, Long Beach Comic-Con will host a one-day Comic Expo 2010. The full weekend-long convention is still on for October.

Comic Convention Memories has been posting old Comic-Con photos (via The Beat).

Con humor: Someone searched for “san diego donut weird” and landed on this photo round-up from San Diego 2008. I can’t imagine why… The first time I saw these costumes, I remember seeing a little boy of around 5 or so turn to his mother and say, “I don’t like him.” Smart kid.

More con humor: The Beat reveals Wizard World Mars, the latest of Gareb Shamus’ convention acquisitions. Wizard responds by “confirming” the news (with follow-up at the Beat).

Comic-Con’s David Glanzer talks to CBR about attendance sellouts and WonderCon. Full-weekend, Saturday and Friday tickets to this year’s Comic-Con International (San Diego, July 22-25) are sold out, but Thursday and Sunday are still available. Hotel rooms go on sale March 18.

Tickets to WonderCon (San Francisco, April 2-4) went on sale three weeks ago and are still available.

Cons: Mars, Scary Donuts, Memories & More is a post from Speed Force.

The Main Series

As 2008 opened, the Flash was just wrapping up the six-part story “The Wild Wests,” the relaunch featuring Wally West as head of the Flash family and introducing his super-powered twins, Iris and Jai. To put it mildly, it was not received well by fans, and former fan favorite writer Mark Waid quickly left the book.

After a one-shot by Keith Champagne, Tom Peyer picked up the regular writing chores and Freddie Williams II stayed on for the 6-part “Fast Money,” which resolved the twins’ super-speed aging problem and gave us a glimpse of an adult Iris West II.

The series wrapped up with the year, as Alan Burnett, Paco Diaz, and Carlo Barberi brought us “This Was Your Life, Wally West.” The four-part story arc looked back at Wally West’s career as Kid Flash, then the Flash, and his relationship with his wife Linda and their children.

Rogues’ Revenge

The Rogues’ Gallery were off-limits to start with, as they were off-planet for Salvation Run. Early in the year, DC released the news of Flash: Rogues’ Revenge, a miniseries that would spotlight them after they returned to Earth, going after Inertia for tricking them into killing the Flash. Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins would return to the speedster mythos for six issues.

By the time the series was launched, it had become Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, and instead of six regular-sized issues it was three oversized issues.

Barry Allen Returns

In April 2008, DC Universe #0 hit the stands. The book, which set up plot threads for a number of upcoming storylines, strongly implied the return of Barry Allen to life. Articles in the mainstream press made it explicit: Barry Allen was back, and he was back for good. (Actually, they tended to just call him “The Flash,” and made it sound like DC hadn’t been printing a Flash series for the last 23 years.)

Barry made his official return in Final Crisis #2 in June, in a final splash page showing him in motion, shouting to his fellow Flashes the single word: “Run!”

Just one month later, at Comic-Con International in San Diego, DC announced the upcoming miniseries, Flash: Rebirth, by the Green Lantern: Rebirth team of Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. The series is currently scheduled to start in April 2009. See also: what we know so far about Flash: Rebirth.

Around the DCU

Jay Garrick continued to appear regularly in Justice Society of America. He also teamed up with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #13, as they battled a nearly-forgotten villain from the late Silver Age: the Samuroids.

Wally West started appearing in the newly-launched Titans series. After a conspicuous absence in Justice League of America, he shared the spotlight with Wonder Woman for issue #20, as they went up against Queen Bee — the same villain who would headline the final story arc in this volume of The Flash.

Wally also made several appearances in Brave and the Bold. While his spotlight issue was released in 2007, he appeared as one of the original Teen Titans in a flashback story in issue #10, and in the present day in #12. Speaking of flashbacks, Teen Titans: Year One looked back at the formation and early days of DC’s main teen super-team.

And then there’s the 12-part Tangent: Superman’s Reign, which started in March. Wally West shared the first cover with the Tangent Universe’s Flash, Lia Nelson, and both Flashes have continued to play a role in the story.

Just about everyone has shown up in Trinity at one point or another, and of course in Final Crisis. Outside the DCU, the Flash has appeared in Super Friends and Kid Flash in Tiny Titans.

Collections

2008 started with a second edition of Blood Will Run, the first story arc Geoff Johns wrote as the regular Flash writer (with Wonderland he’d been hired just for the one arc), which added the graphic novel, Iron Heights.

The second volume of Showcase Presents:The Flash arrived in June, reprinting more of Barry Allen’s Silver-Age adventures in a cheap, black-and-white collection.

August saw the release of The Wild Wests, the first monthly Flash story arc to be collected in hardcover. (Previously, The Life Story of the Flash and Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told had been printed in hardcover, and aside from that only the Flash Archives series had received that treatment.)

TV/Animation

In February, Barry Allen appeared in the direct-to-DVD animated film, Justice League: The New Frontier (reviewed on my other blog), based on Darwyn Cooke’s DC: The New Frontier. The movie debuted at WonderCon in San Francisco the weekend before its release.

In March, the Flash appeared in the two-part series finale of The Batman, “Lost Heroes,” alongside the Justice League. Season 5 was released on DVD in July, and reviewed here earlier this week.

Teen Titans Season 5, which featured Kid Flash in several episodes, was also released on DVD in July.

The DVD set DC Superheroes: The Filmation Adventures was released in August, featuring (among others) the Flash and Teen Titans segments from the 1967 Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure. They’re certainly a different take on the heroes.

Meanwhile, a number of DC-based cartoons and TV series including Superfriends, the live-action Flash TV series the Filmation cartoons and others have been made available as digital downloads from such services as iTunes, Amazon Video on Demand, and XBox Live.

Video Games

This summer, word came out that the Flash would appear in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. The game was released to mixed reviews in November.

Back at Comic-Con in July, Sony previewed the upcoming massively-multiplayer online game, DC Universe Online. At least two Flashes (Jay Garrick and either Wally West or Barry Allen) appear in the game, which is being scripted by Geoff Johns and will likely ship in late 2009 or early 2010.

Flash Companion

In July, just in time for Comic-Con, TwoMorrows released The Flash Companion. The 224-page book covers the full behind-the-scenes history of the Scarlet Speedster, from his origins in the 1940s to the present day. The biggest part of the book is dedicated to interviews with and articles about the writers, artists and editors who have brought the character to life for the past seven decades.

In addition to the interviews, there’s previously unpublished artwork, articles about unusual facts — like the time one editor ordered two covers for the same issue, or the unused Flash — and of course, Rogue Profiles.

I’m still excited about this one because I contributed several of the character profiles — specifically, the ones for Abra Kadabra, Professor Zoom, and Zoom.

So what’s coming up for the Flash in 2009? That’s the subject for another post, and I’ll have it ready for you…next year!

Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for several of the covers.

Looking Back: The Flash in 2008 is a post from Speed Force.

In theory, it shouldn’t be necessary to spell out “Don’t stalk or assault people” in the program. We’re talking about behavior that’s already unacceptable and, once you cross a certain line, illegal. Unfortunately some people either lack basic social graces (I’m trying to keep the language family-friendly, here), or think that costumes give them a free pass.

I do think the convention needs a clear reporting procedure. Let people know they can report incidents to security, and follow through.

They also need better coordination between convention staff and security. My wife and I spent an hour and a half dealing with what we thought was the theft of her purse. She stood up at the end of a panel and it was gone. She reported it to security, filled out a missing property report, checked lost and found, canceled her credit card…and in the end it turned out that the room’s staff had removed it from under her seat during the previous panel break, thinking someone else had left it behind, and put it at the back of the room. But they hadn’t said anything to security about it, and security didn’t ask them.

(Found via several blogs.)

Convention Behavior is a post from Speed Force.

Rumor column Lying in the Gutters suggests he might be staying with the Legion, or at least be available in that setting:

One San Diegoer tells me, “I was waiting at the Aspen booth at Comic-Con getting a sketch done by current Legion Artist Francis Manapul, when Geoff Johns came over and interrupted to talk to him for a second. Johns had a copy of…his first Teen Titans trade, and handed it to Manapul, which Manapul said, ‘I eventually did get my hands on a copy and read it last night.’ The two of them talked about Bart Allen for a couple of minutes, with Manapul being very complimentary of how he was written. Johns looked around, saw people were watching, and turned his back and the two of them continued to talk inaudibly for about 10 minutes about something before Johns left.

“Combine that with the vague question that Johns asked at one panel: ‘Does anyone miss Bart Allen?’ and there has to be something there.”

Rich Johnston gives the rumor a yellow light on his traffic-light scale of reliability, so even he isn’t sure what — if anything — the conversation means. It could mean absolutely nothing.

Linkage: Rumors of Bart is a post from Speed Force.

Finally, who did Jones use for photo reference for the Flash image on the cover of “Final Crisis” #2? “I used me!” But self-reliance has its price, Jones revealed, because the posing process slows things down. “I have to pose, take a shot, look at it, pose, take a shot, look at it…” Fortunately for readers, Jones’s patience tends to pay off.

J.G. Jones is the Flash is a post from Speed Force.

Comic-Con Photos (2008) is a post from Speed Force.

“I’m redesigning Wally West’s costume right now, and it’s terrifying.” While Sinestro’s costume, with its seemingly random blue color and “jester collar,” was ready for a redesign in Van Sciver’s eyes, “Wally West is the most perfectly designed costume ever, aside from Green Lantern’s costume, in my opinion.” Van Sciver said the challenge was to redo the costume without either making it less cool or more cool than Barry Allen’s and thus implying that one character is better than the other.

“I want Barry to come back and be King Arthur. He’s the most straight-laced, perfect Flash, rigid in his morality and his ethics,” making the looser, cooler, more laid-back Wally a Lancelot figure. Van Sciver told the audience “Kick me in the ass if I fail.”

So there’s at least some hope for Wally fans that he won’t be totally shoved off to the side. Maybe.

On the other hand, he also confirmed that the monthly Flash series will “stop” for Flash: Rebirth. How it will be relaunched afterward — picking up where it left off, or where Barry’s series left off — or with a new #1 — he wouldn’t say.

Linkage: Ethan Van Sciver on the Future of Wally West is a post from Speed Force.

DC: A Guide to Your Universe at CBR

A fan asked whether Flash Wally West would be replaced by Barry Allen. “You’ll have to read ‘Flash Rebirth,” Johns said. “I hope I’ve shown I am a Wally West fan–I wrote the book for five years.”

On the final page of “All Flash” which includes an image of a Batman costume coming out of a Flash ring, Johns said “I think Mark [Waid] just wanted to put a Batman suit in a ring.”

A fan asked whether Flash Wally West would be replaced by Barry Allen. “You’ll have to read ‘Flash Rebirth,” Johns said. “I hope I’ve shown I am a Wally West fan–I wrote the book for five years.”

Newsarama adds:

Any chance of a Hal/Barry team-up book? “It’s too early for that,” said Johns, but adding that Hal Jordan will be in The Flash: Rebirth.

As for the Geoff Johns Spotlight, CBR’s write-up has a ton of Flash-related info (and now I’m really annoyed I couldn’t make it). Some highlights:

Were the Rogues’ statements that they didn’t mean to kill Bart Allen a retcon on Johns’s part, or a self-justification on the part of the Rogues themselves? Johns said it was a bit of both, and that more will be revealed regarding their motivations in the next two issues…Johns said he thought they’d be smart enough to know that killing a Flash would bring down a lot of heat, which it did….they mostly feel bad about being caught. Johns teased that we would soon discover that one of the Rogues actually was trying to kill Bart.

He then quoted from his “Flash: Rebirth” script: “One of Barry’s good friends says, ‘Has the world gotten too fast for you?’ Barry smiles and says, ‘The world’s finally catching up.’”

As I said, there’s a ton of Flash info in that panel, and I highly recommend reading the whole thing.

CBR has a video interview with Geoff Johns, which I have not yet had time to watch.

CBR also interviewed Ethan Van Sciver about Rebirth.

Filling in the San Diego Gaps is a post from Speed Force.

Newsarama’s J.K. Parkin writes about playing a speedster in the DCU Online demo:

The coolest part, though, was when I hit the right joystick and turned on the Speed Force. Throwing rocks at my enemies and slamming them with my staff was cool and all, but you’d expect that in any superhero-based MMO. Having my character run through the streets of Metropolis at super speed, trailed by what looked like the Speed Force that all comic fans know from the comics? That’s the kind of detail this game needed to really set it apart. And from what I’ve seen so far, it has it in spades.

They’ve also got an article on the DC Universe Online presentation that Sony made Wednesday night.

IGN has extensive coverage of the gaming side of the con, including a write-up of Friday’s DCUO panel, video clips, an interview with Jim Lee before the show, and Greg Miller’s demo experience:

I chose to quit, take Jim Lee’s advice, and try out the speedster.

Named Rock Solid and decked out in black and gold, the speedster was just about everything I could want in a low-level superhero. Clicking L3 put the dude into super-speed mode so that he could scoot around Metropolis with a wicked speed effect at his feet, run up the sides of buildings, and get away from foes, but being earth-based gave him some more nifty powers.

Moving on to Mortal Combat vs. DC Universe, Newsarama’s article on the MK vs. DC panel, includes a description of one of the fights in the preview video:

Finally, the Flash darted around Soyna, leaving her spinning and dazed before running her off a cliff, the pair trading blows all the way down before the Flash got the upper hand and whipped his opponent into the ground, creating a small crater.

Each brutal blow drew “oooohhhs” from the crowd, who also cheered when Superman cut loose with his heat vision, and when Flash delivered several attacks at his trademark speed.

IGN had its own panel write-up, including the video clip, and added that gameplay is structured in chapters, with each character associated with a chapter. That might explain why we keep seeing the same match-ups in the demo footage.

(Images via IGN)

Gaming Bits from San Diego is a post from Speed Force.

• Comic-Con 2008 at Speed Force
• Comic-Con 2008 at K-Squared Ramblings
• Photos from Comic-Con 2008

I’ll also track down write-ups from events that I missed, and post links to Flash-related info in the next few days.

San Diego Wrap-Up is a post from Speed Force.